May 31, 2016

Imagine spaceship of humans visiting our solar system and landing on Earth. Outside small interval highlighted in green window on the timeline, human survival on the surface would require a spacesuit, and outside the yellow highlighted time window, even the oceans would only contain organisms visible by microscope. Visit today, and the visitors have missed peak life which occurred 500 million years in the past, and instead see life in gradual slow decline to its imminent demise. Life is fragile, and it is dying.

The Myth: We are not starving yet means we aren't overpopulated. The Truth: Overpopulation is defined as when population reaches a level resulting in damaging to the environment and is unsustainable. Starvation only happens if overpopulation continues until a final catastrophic environmental collapse and is no more a symptom of overpopulation than death is a symptom of disease. Unsustainability is a symptom.

Consider grazing animal on a farm. Overpopulation means unattainability and the animals eat grass faster than it grows, starvation when there is no grass left.

We are not yet starving, but unsustainability means we are overpopulated, and progressively, all but perhaps the richest 1% must suffer if we fail to constrain population.